On This Day in 2008, Sir Paul McCartney Went Head-to-Head With McDonald’s: “Ridiculous and Insulting”

Celebrity fast food deals are commonplace these days, but back in 2008, Sir Paul McCartney made it abundantly clear that he was not, in fact, “ba-da-ba-BA-ba, lovin’ it” when he went head-to-head with the popular fast food chain, McDonald’s. The American hamburger chain has become a ubiquitous storefront around the world, including McCartney’s native Liverpool, England. And indeed, it was those Liverpudlian golden arches that first came on the receiving end of McCartney’s criticism.

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Unsurprisingly, McDonald’s locations in Liverpool thought it sensible to lean on the fact that they were in The Beatles’ hometown by hanging photographs of McCartney and his bandmates, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, inside the dining room. Practically the entire city of Liverpool leans heavily on Beatles tourism, so it would make sense that a restaurant like McDonald’s (that would typically cater to Americans traveling abroad to visit The Beatles’ former stomping grounds) would do the same.

As a representative told Campaign, Liverpudlian McDonald’s began hanging the photos to “acknowledge the outstanding contribution The Beatles made to both local and global culture.” A respectable sentiment, perhaps, but not one McCartney wanted to entertain. Releasing a statement of his own, the musician chose not to mince his words when he said, “What sort of morons do McDonald’s think Beatles’ fans are?”

Paul McCartney vs. McDonald’s

In the age of celeb-endorsed fast food deals at McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, Tim Horton’s, and Popeyes, a collaboration between two pop culture behemoths like Paul McCartney and McDonald’s would be surprising but not altogether outlandish. After all, the opportunity to turn the Big Mac into the Big Macca is right there. However, the former Beatle had no interest in having his face plastered around a hamburger takeaway joint. “It’s ridiculous and insulting to use images to peddle hamburgers,” McCartney said in his critical statement in October 2008. “Fans should boycott McDonald’s, and not just in Liverpool.” (Fun fact: there are 16 McDonald’s in Liverpool and roughly 1,500 across the entire U.K., per the data company ScrapeHero. America’s count is around 13,500.)

McCartney’s intense opposition to McDonald’s using his image in their restaurants goes beyond the fact that the fast food chain did so without consulting him first. It also goes against his morals and lifestyle. McCartney has been vegetarian since the mid-1970s. He has often cited a dinner he shared with his then-wife, Linda McCartney, as the impetus for their switch. The pair were happily eating legs of lamb while looking out on the fields surrounding their country home, which just so happened to be full of frolicking sheep and their babies. They came to the realization that they didn’t want to decide whether creatures like these should live or die, so they opted to cut out meat entirely.

In the years that followed, McCartney would build upon his vegetarian reasoning, citing environmental and global food shortage concerns. A PETA spokesperson told Campaign, “We hope anyone who sees [McCartney’s] picture on the wall will be reminded that he’s a vegetarian and skip the Big Mac for a veggie burger.”

Photo by John Stillwell – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images